As is well known, a head separation camera apparatus comprises a camera head and a camera control unit (CCU) which are provided separately. The camera head includes a solid-state image sensor, such as a charge-coupled device (CCD) sensor or a complementary metal-oxide semiconductor (CMOS) sensor. The CCU supplies a drive control signal to the solid-state image sensor of the camera head and performs signal processing on the output of the solid-state image sensor to produce a video signal. The camera head and the CCU are connected via a cable composed of a plurality of signal lines bundled together.
Since the head separation camera apparatus has been used in a broad range of industries, it is hoped that the apparatus will get more sophisticated and offer a higher performance. In the head separation camera apparatus, the types of signals and the number of bits exchanged between the camera head and the CCU are increasing dramatically. Accordingly, the number of signal lines in the camera cable increases and therefore the cable gets thicker. In addition, the number of terminals of the connector that connects the camera cable and the camera head increases, making the connector larger.
In general, the head separation camera apparatus has been developed to check areas which are so narrow that a person cannot enter the areas. Therefore, it is hoped that the camera head will be made as smaller as possible. The thicker camera cable and the larger connector connecting with the camera cable become factors that prevent the camera head from being made smaller. Therefore, the problem of preventing the camera cable from getting thicker and the connector from getting larger becomes important.
Jpn. Pat. Appln. KOKAI Publication No. 2005-311535 has disclosed an imaging apparatus configured to have a camera head 117 and a control unit 118 separated from each other and cause the CPU 116 of the control unit 118 to transmit a control signal to a plurality of devices, including the microcomputer 106 of the camera head 117.